Twitter rolled out its official app for the BlackBerry on Friday, adding a specialized version of the micro-blogging site to the most popular smartphone platform.

According to Twitter's official blog and the BlackBerry Web site, the Twitter app features include:

_ Real-time "push" notifications for direct messages on Twitter
_ Camera and photo integration
_ Notifications when you're Twitter user name is mentioned
_ Integration that links to Twitter when you get a text message or e-mail that includes someone's user name

"Working closely with [BlackBerry maker] RIM to deliver the official Twitter app has been a great experience and we are looking forward to bringing more and more Twitter innovation to BlackBerry," Twitter's blog post said.

Apple's iPhone and Google's Android phones seem to get all the buzz, but BlackBerry is still hands down the leader in the smartphone field. But do people think of them more as work tools than social-networking devices?

Yes I will be tweeting from my phone with the new app. As far as iPhones and Android's they're for kids. They're constantly changing and bragging about apps they're just toys for the me too crowd. Blackberry's are for those of us who do REAL work.

I gave up my BB when I got a good look at the Android-based phones. RIM needs to update and get aggressive again. Right now the only thing they do like no other is email... and I have apps on my Android that make up for that.

Don't get me wrong, I was a HUGE BB fan... but much like the iPhone (of which I wasn't a fan) the novelty is wearing thin, getting dated, and needs a refresh.

[...] Official Twitter App All you Blackberry users out there – good news in the Twittersphere! Blackberry released its official Twitter app yesterday, making a whole lot of users mighty happy. According to the Twitter blog, the app includes the [...]

To Ben: why dod you find it necessary to denigrate the choice of others? You like your BB and other like their iPhone and 'Droid. What's the problem? It sounds like you just need a reason to re-assure yourself that your choice is right.

@Truth – iPhone and Droid or Android phones are toys because all you ever hear talked about is the apps. No one seems to care if they're really good phones. iPhone users complain about there data connections and blame AT&T service, I suspect some of the problems is that the iPhone is a lousy PHONE but a pretty good computer. As for the Android why would you buy something that Google and the carriers can't make up their minds on which operating system version to use 1.5, 1.6, 2.0, 2.1 pick one the apps for one version may not work with the other.

@Weapondrift – I had a HTC Touch Pro, the Blackberry beats it hands down.

I tried the new app over the weekend and quickly re-installed the UT app for BB.

The Twitter app for BB is gravely lacking items such as Twittlonger, "Friend Finder", etc.. The interface is cool but there were too many "crashes" .. I am hoping they incorporate these items soon; until then, UT it is..

I completely agree that Blackberry is primarily a work tool and secondarily a social networking device. I had a Blackberry for several years and recently moved over to the iPhone. The BB made me more productive but the iPhone has increased my social networking activities dramatically. My husband is using the Twitter for Blackberry app and he loves it. It's a huge improvement over previous apps for BB such as UberTwitter and Twitterberry.

While I loved the smooth interface it lacks in features compared to UberTwitter. I ended up deleting it and switching back to UberTwitter. The RIM app made no use of GPS capabilities. I also like the way UberTwitter incorporates features such as TwittLonger, which allows you to Tweet more than 140 characters.

Replying to Ben: Your comment seems to contradict itself. You claim that specific smartphones are toys, and people don't talk about how good the phone is. While you give a statement to this effect about the iPhone, you said nothing about the quality of an Android based phone like the Droid. You mearely criticized the OS. The phone system for the Droid on Verizon is the best cell phone I've ever used, and the Verizon network is the reason I went with that phone in the first place. Now will it be usuable in Europe? No it won't. So I won't carry it for the 1 week a year that I'm there vacationing. I'd rather use a temp phone for my vacation time than sacrifice use the other 51 weeks a year for something that doesn't really suit my needs. If travelling abroad is a concern, then I'd say a Blackberry is a best choice. But if I'm positioned in the US/canada almost the entire year, I'd rather go with a phone that meets my needs here. Just my own 2 cents.

I downloaded the new twitter app as soon as it was launched. I love UberTwitter, but this is by far a better improvement. The only two things I miss from UberTwitter is the old RT feature and how a username pops up once you enter "@". Overall great app, but still a few things that could use tweaking.

BB tour is the best phone i've ever owned. now with the new OS update and the Twitter app – I'm more in love with it than I was before. i agree with other posters, iphone is all about games/apps – used for entertainment, and BB is great for work as the primary function and social networking as secondary. i don't need 1,000 apps on my BB, i'm already on it enough with FB, BBM, gchat, AIM, pandora, emails, txts, and now twitter.

This is so long overdue. The other Twitter apps for BB, of which UberTwitter and Twitterberry were the best, were far lacking in simulating all the things you could do on the main Twitter site. That is what makes the BB Facebook app so immersive, and its high time that RIM made Twiiter for BB as user friendly. I think it will greatly increase the number of BB users who move to Twitter as they get sick of all the fluff that Facebook drowns you with now. Since I have a great Twitter app, I would have no qualms deactivating my Facebook account. Twitter expands on what was so awesome about Facebook in the first place....the status updates with you, your family, and friends and sharing photos and networking with them. Twitter has all of that, without you getting constant updates that 'so and so became a fan of not being a fan of other people being fans of something a celebrity is a fan of' or that 'so and so scored 17,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 points on Bejeweled.'

I used Twitter for blackberry Friday through Saturday but felt uncomfortable with it enough for me to reinstall UT alongside it. I like the fliud interface and the mentions... the droop is the twitlonger ... a minus for me. I do hope this is fixed in a next build or something.

Now on the iPhone-vs-BB spats, i dont know why people even bother to compare the two devices. One is so obviously for kids (oops!... entertainment, sorry) and the other is purely business-oriented... the BB's social networking integration, i see as a plus. Can you imagine board execs of a major corporation, say, Shell for example file into a meeting and everyone is plopping an iPhone on the table???... yes, i know what precisely is wrong with that image, the phones should have been Blackberry phones... Go figure!

Hey, thanks for the ietsrnet. I'm pretty excited by the idea of rappers using B-Rhymes. I did a little dance when I saw MC Frontalot had tweeted me.The first version of the mobile app is going to rely on this webserver to get data for each and every query, to the dismay of people sans data plans. The problem is, this thing involves a lot of data. Way more data than a normal dictionary. The database backing it is like 160MB, which I don't think is insurmountable, but it'll take some work to get it down to something reasonable. That is more work than a first version.As for Android, I guess I missed it above. It's defintely in the plan.

I don't understand blackberry. I don't understand why people use those phones. I myself i'm also not a big Twitter person. So i
really i'm not to excited about this article. However i love commenting on CNN's posts. This is an old post, boy have times changed.

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